A police officer involved in the arrest of a DUI offender hugs the graduate at a recent ceremony at DUI Court at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, while officials from the county Probation Department and Health Care Agency look on. COURTESY OF LESLIE HOWARD

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Judge Matthew Anderson shakes hands with a graduate of DUI Court at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, as the graduate makes his way down a line of court officials, probation officers, therapists from the Orange County Health Care Agency and attorneys. COURTESY OF LESLIE HOWARD

NEWPORT BEACH – Her voice barely audible, the mother stepped to the podium to address the court.

Popped in May 2011 with her second DUI, registering a blood-alcohol level of 0.23 percent at the time of her arrest, the woman looked at the judge as she talked about her excuses for drinking.

She was already a heavy drinker in 2010, she said, when she learned she had breast cancer. During chemotherapy and radiation, she was too sick to drink. But when her treatments were complete, and her doctor said things were looking good, she hit the bottle again – this time to celebrate.

Now, 18 months sober, the woman – herself the daughter of an alcoholic father – talked of the "cunning and powerful" disease of alcoholism, and of how the celebration began when she stopped drinking.

"Sobriety is the greatest gift I've ever had," she said.

As the woman spoke, Judge Matthew Anderson, 54, beamed.

And when she finished, like others in the packed courtroom at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, the judge broke into applause.

•••

For nine "hard-core impaired drivers," Dec. 11 was graduation day.

All were successful participants in DUI Court, a countywide program that is a national model for making the community safer by identifying repeat drunken drivers before they become killers.

Orange County established one of the nation's first DUI Courts in 2004, and today the court, run out of the Harbor Justice Center and three other county courthouses, is one of four nationally designated "academy" courts, meaning it provides resources and training for new DUI Courts throughout the country.

Anderson started running the DUI Court at Harbor in 2010.

He's seen a few people fail in the rigorous course.

But, more often, he's seen a different story – businessmen reunited with their kids, mothers regaining custody of their children, previously wayward young adults enrolling in college.

"I've seen sick and depressed and dangerous people reclaim their lives," Anderson said of DUI Court, in which participants must remain for at least a year, and sometimes longer.

"It's an incredible gift to our community."

•••

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that alcohol-impaired drivers in the U.S. kill about 10,000 people a year, making drunken driving only slightly less lethal than gun-related homicides.

The goal of DUI Court is to reduce those numbers. Toward that end, the court focuses on two categories of drunken drivers: offenders with two or more DUI convictions, and those who show dangerously high levels of alcohol in their system at the time of their arrest. Offenders whose cases are filed as felonies, often because they've been involved in accidents in which someone is injured or killed, are not eligible to participate.

As of this month, there are 228 active participants in DUI Court in Orange County, said Leslie Howard, DUI Court coordinator at Harbor Justice Center.

The time they're doing isn't easy.

People accepted into the DUI Court must participate in an intensive program that includes regular court appearances, individual and group counseling, substance-abuse treatment, probation supervision, plus frequent and random alcohol and drug testing. Participants are urged to make a lifelong commitment to sobriety.

"I thank God every day I didn't kill or hurt anyone when I was drinking," another graduate said at the courtroom ceremony.

Most participants in Orange County DUI Court are male – 67 percent. Nearly half are between the ages of 22 and 30. Sixty-five percent are single, and roughly the same percentage have jobs.

And all are committed to something deeper than merely reducing the time they spend behind bars.

Though DUI Court does reduce actual jail time, letting offenders spend time under electronic surveillance at home instead of in county lockup, Anderson (who leads a team that accepts or rejects DUI Court applicants) won't let people into the program if he thinks that's their only motivation.

When they're done, DUI Court graduates are put on informal probation and the balance of their fines and fees are waived.

The charges, however, are not dismissed.

•••

The cost of drunken driving isn't all about ruined lives and emotional and physical pain. It's also about money.

In that context, DUI Court, which is funded by state and federal grants, as well as alcohol-related assessment fees, might be a boon for taxpayers.

Though no one has conducted local or statewide estimates, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence estimates that drunken driving costs taxpayers about $100 billion a year nationally.

Other statistics show that candidates for DUI Court – repeat offenders who haven't yet injured or killed anyone – are on a track to cost taxpayers big money. One in five second-time DUI offenders, and one in four third-timers, are re-arrested for a DUI within five years.

Those repeat-offender stats don't apply to DUI Court. Of the 779 offenders who have graduated from DUI Court in the past seven years, only 36 – just under 5 percent – have been re-arrested.

What's more, the DUI Court's push for less hard time in jail also reduces taxpayer expenses. It costs about $116 a day to house an inmate at one of the five county-operated jails in Orange County. By diverting offenders to DUI Court instead of jail, the program has cut local jail expenses by $11.3 million a year since the program's inception, officials say.

Still, money and public safety is rarely enough to keep alcoholics out of cars.

One recent graduate, a married mother of four, said two DUIs, six stints in rehab and four periods of being institutionalized couldn't keep her from drinking. Instead, she's sober – for now – because of something said by her 12-year-old:

"Mom, don't give up."

Another graduate, a man, thanked Anderson for his life.

"I'm certain I would have drunk myself to death."

••

On graduation day, Anderson reminded the dozens of active DUI Court offenders in attendance of a mantra he hopes they follow to ensure their success.

"If you're just a little in, you're not in at all," he said. "You have to be all in."

Then, as the ceremony ended, Anderson did something very unjudgelike.

He led the room in words adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous, "The Serenity Prayer":

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

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